If they come, they come not; and if they come not, they come. The cattle of people living hereabout [Northumberland] turned into the common pasture, did by custom use to return to their home at night, unless intercepted by the freebooters and borderers. If, therefore, those borderers came, their cattle came not: if they came not, their cattle surely returned.R.

If thou hadst the rent of Dee mills, thou wouldst spend it. Cheshire. Dee is the name of the river on which the city of Chester stands: the mills thereon yield a great annual rent, greater than any of the houses about that city.R. 1670.

If you be angry you may turn the buckle of your girdle behind you. Se l à per male, scingasi. Ital. The Spaniards say, Si tienes de mi enojo descalçate un zapato, y echalo en remojo. If you are angry with me, pull off one of your shoes, and lay it in soak.R.

If you cannot tell, you are naught to keep sheep. Wilkins Miseries of Enforced Marriage, 1607, Dodsleys O. P., v. 12. The play is on the word tell; and the proverb is a sort of taunt to persons who return the idle answer that they cannot tell.

If you trust before you try, / you may repent before you die. [Greek].Theogn. Therefore it was an ancient precept, [Greek]. Non vien ingannato se non chi si fida. Ital. There is none deceived but he that trusts.R.

This intends, of course, to express that while a cheese is being made, it must be turned so many times before the warmth has quite left the curd. But in the Cheshire cheese-dairies it is always usual to continue turning the cheeses while they are maturing, so that one side may not remain too long down; and the same practice may prevail perhaps in the Gloucestershire and other farms.

If you would fruit have, / you must carry the leaf to the grave. That is, you must transplant your trees just about the fall of the leaf, neither sooner nor much later: not sooner, because of the motion of the sap; not later, that they may have time to take root before the deep frosts.R.

Ill chance it, as Parson (or Old) Horne did his neck. A writer, in Notes and Queries says, that this was once a common saying in the midland counties, and may be now. I have heard of its being used in Scotland. Horne was a clergyman in Nottinghamshire. Horne committed a murder. He escaped to the Continent. After many years residence abroad he determined to return. In answer to an attempt to dissuade him, and being told he would be hanged if he did, he said, Ill chance it. He did return, was tried, condemned, and executed. The account of his life, trial, character, and behaviour may be found in the Newgate Calendar.

In April Doves flood / is worth a kings good. C. Leighs England Described, 1659, p. 179. The river Dove has a white clayish channel, without any shelves of mud, which is so greatly enriched by running on a limestone soil, as Camden relates, that the meadows on both sides have a fresh and green aspect, even in the depth of winter; and if it overflows there in April, it renders them so fruitful, that the neighbouring inhabitants joyfully, on this occasion, apply the following rhyme:

In April, Doves flood

Is worth a Kings good.

But Dr. Plot ascribes this fertility to the sheeps dung washed down from the hills by the rain, and thrown on the banks by the floods.Universal Magazine, p. 49, 1758, quoted by Brady, Var. of Lit., 1826.